Q: How do I find an appraiser or an auction house that specializes in what I have? I have a bunch of first edition John Grisham books to sell. A: Many readers ask about how to sell. I'm here to tell you that anyone can be a smart seller simply by following basic steps. We've covered the MO before, but based on number of queries received, it bears repeating: First, know what you have. The first reader has contemporary literature, so I suggest a look at major used booksellers to find the going retail rate. Key www.abebooks.com, www.biblio.com, and www.bookfinder.com for those Grisham titles. Compare their prices with completed sales on eBay. After a scan, you'll know what you have.

Q: How do I find an appraiser or an auction house that specializes in what I have? I have a bunch of first edition John Grisham books to sell. A: Many readers ask about how to sell. I'm here to tell you that anyone can be a smart seller simply by following basic steps. We've covered the MO before, but based on number of queries received, it bears repeating. First, know what you have. The first reader has contemporary literature, so I suggest a look at major used booksellers to find the going retail rate. Key www.abebooks.com, www.biblio.com, and www.bookfinder.com for those Grisham titles. Compare their prices with completed sales on eBay. After a scan, you'll know what you have. (This article was also syndicated across The Arizona Daily Star, Chicago Tribune, Newport Daily Press, Hartford Courant, and Baltimore Sun.)

In other news, the Bookfinder.com tally of the most requested out-of-print books once more names Madonna's "Sex", Walt Kelly's "I Go Pogo", and Salvador Dali's "The Jerusalem Bible", among other nonfiction desirables. Fiction's most requested include Dennis Potter's "Ticket to Ride", Donald Hamilton's "The Big Country" and Lynne Cheney's lesbian romance "Sisters".

It's also a good starting point for valuing other books. If you have a large collection, you could call in a dealer from a second-hand bookshop, but be aware they are likely to offer around a third of the price they hope to sell each for. Log on to BookFinder (BookFinder.com) to get an idea of values.

If you're a book lover, you're probably already aware of Bookfinder, an appealingly stripped-down search engine that gives you access to over 150 million books available for sale online. If you're a serious collector, you can narrow your search by looking only for, say, first editions and/or signed copies. And it displays results sorted by price, so it's easy to find a good deal -- especially if you're willing to live with a little edgewear.

Last January, an anonymous poster at LiveJournal put up a complete scan of what seemed to be a forgotten book by Edward Gorey, "The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion," a retro etiquette manual credited to one Hyacinthe Phypps. The post drew so many hits that it crashed the site, and the book shot to the top of BookFinder.com's list of the most searched-for out-of-print books.

Discounts are not so big for used books at college bookstores, and their supplies tend to run out quickly. But Web sites are picking up the slack. Prices are all over the lot, and you could spend hours looking for the best value browsing Bookfinder.com.

Like all Google entries, the story ends there. You need to click a button to continue... From there you could go to other sites -- Amazon, Bookfinder, Library Thing -- to learn more about Ekoomiak and his art.

BookFinder.com has issued its annual lists of the most sought after out-of-print books. The times they are a-changin'. A lot has happened since last year's lists were compiled at the end of August 2008. The stock market collapsed and the world economy fell into a tailspin. People lost their jobs and houses. A new President was elected in America unlike any we've seen before. And, people's tastes in out-of-print books changed with the times. Eight of the ten categories of books tracked by BookFinder have new titles at the top of their popularity lists for the twelve months ending with August 2009.

BookFinder.com has tracked the most sought-after out-of-print titles in America. The newly-released seventh annual edition is based on aggregate reader demand between July 2008 and June 2009. This years list was influenced by both pop culture and financial chaos, each driving readers to seek out-of-print books ranging from a saucy memoir revealing a real housewife of New Jersey to nearly forgotten exposes on the Wall Street and the US Federal Reserve.

Anybody clearing out their bookshelves on Ebay would do well to take a look at the latest report over at Bookfinder.com. The ambitious website has compiled its list of the most sought-after out-of-print books in the US, based on "aggregate reader demand between July 2008 and June 2009". Interesting list for a lot of reasons, depending on the category. Bookfinder cites reasons for the demand on some of these titles - any book about the economy can be attributed to hindsight curiosity spurred by the recession, for instance. Some of the rest are easy to figure out, like the #1 spot on the "Fiction & Literature" list (Dennis Potter's Ticket to Ride, which got a massive boost from Twilight-heads when Robert Pattinson casually mentioned it). Me, I'm just surprised to see anything by Stephen King or Nora Roberts out of print.

The seventh annual BookFinder.com report is now available online. The report reveals the most sought after out-of-print books in America including the top Society/Culture, Fiction, Art's/Music books and more. It's useful if you're looking for hot titles to pick up at book sales and yard sales, but it's also a lot of fun to read as well! BookFinder.com is an ecommerce search engine that searches over 150 million books for sale - new, used, rare, out-of-print, and textbooks.

BookFinder.com recently released its annual list of the most sought-after out-of-print books. The entries range from the obviously topical "Wall Street Under Oath", "The Energy Non-Crisis", "Cop Without a Badge" (which apparently contains a less than flattering portrait of one of the stars of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey"), to the timeless and vaguely reassuring: "Aran Knitting", "The Butterfly Book", "Like a Prairie Fire: A History of the Assemblies of God in Oklahoma." The list has come to serve as a kind of "Antiques Roadshow" for publishers hoping to find lucrative out-of-print titles in the attic. And in a just world, Edward Gorey's 1965 manual "The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion" (to be reissued in November by Bloomsbury) would be cuddling up next to 50 Cent on the how-to and advice list. Alas, some of BookFinder's juiciest titles seem to be in permanent retirement, like Madonna's "Sex" and Lynne Cheney's lesbian-tinged bodice-ripper, "Sisters". In a more just world, those would be a boxed set.

Finally, if she's adamant about checking out as a mother because she'd rather check out books from the library, maybe you can find solace in your own reading about how other people have dealt with neglectful mothers, such as the books listed here.

Google Key Dingake, and the internet search engine turns up more than one thousand entries ranging from BookFinder.com list of books he has authored on politics and law in southern Africa to some of the groundbreaking judgments he has delivered.

Le Forge's "My Wife Is a Horse" is available for sale at Barn Nanny's Feed, located at the corner of Highways 90 and 69, across from Blondie.s. This book and several others by Le Forge can also be found at bookfinder.com

Bookfinder.com will compare the price of a textbook on various Internet sites. My little sister, who started community college Monday, used Bookfinder.com and paid half of what she would have at the campus bookstore.

Liz Gross gave some general research advice in describing "a fantastic, fantastic Web site, bookfinder.com. I learned that there are at least three volumes of the cookbook, retailing between $40 and $45 used.

To rent or to buy? It.s a choice facing students looking to save on college textbooks. The price of course materials has long been a sore point for families, with students spending an average of $1,000 a year on books and supplies, according to The College Board. The marketplace has responded enthusiastically, with startups and publishers now offering to rent books or providing electronic versions at a fraction of the cost.

Why not heighten the hallucinatory effects of our sweltering summer by revisiting this posthumous masterpiece by Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940). The book is set in a 1930s Moscow "scorched to a crisp" where the devil and his cohorts . including a large, talking, bulletproof cat . create incessant havoc ... all in aid of a novelist who's written a most peculiar tale about Pontius Pilate. In the 1996 Vintage edition, two superb translators, Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor, deliver the tale with a bright, savage, incendiary whimsy. Out of print, but available secondhand through www.bookfinder.com for reasonable prices.

Finding the latest New York Times Best Seller List topping novel at a bookstore is easy. Finding a first edition of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'? Not so much...For another resource in your book-finding arsenal, check out BookFinder.com for another excellent search engine for rare and out of print books. If you're a bibliophile with some tips and tricks to share on the topic of hunting down rare books, let's hear about it in the comments below.

In the 1970s large numbers of people began running for the first time. John L Parker, himself a former champion runner, wrote a novel about the habit in 1978. But no publisher wanted 'Once A Runner', so Parker self-published it. He sold copies at races out of the boot of his car, and a cult developed around the book. In 2007, search engine BookFinder.com rated it the most sought after out-of-print book in the US. This spring, the book was republished -- this time by Scribner, a commercial publisher in the US.

We've all heard the rant. With ebooks, there's no paper, printing, transportation and so forth. So why should an ebook still cost $9.99 (in the typical Kindle case) or even more? The idea makes a lot of intuitive sense. If everything you physically hold in your hand and everything it took to deliver that physical good to your hand can be converted to a few megabytes worth of electrons, surely the cost of the book must be dramatically lower than a typical hardcover--and the price should reflect that fact. The problem is that the costs aren't nearly as much lower as you might believe. Here's one breakdown from Money Magazine for a hardcover bestseller by way of the BookFinder.com Journal.

The 10 worst mothers in Literature: Jennifer Schuessler says 'Take My Mother, Please'. If there is one person who personifies selflessness, un-wavering love and caring the first to come to mind should be your mother. She cradled you for your fist nine months and held your hand though all the challenges life could throw at you. Like with all true heroes books are littered with examples of hundreds of miracle moms from the classic Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter, who taught her daughter it's not shameful to have pride in ones self, to the more contemporary Mrs. Weasley the super poor super mom who took in Harry Potter like he was her own son. However not all the mother's in literature come out smelling like roses. Abandonment, abuse, and adultery are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bottom of the barrel of fictional mothers. To help you forget that time your mom forgot your birthday BookFinder.com has compiled a list of the 10 worst mothers in fiction.

Keep Your Money in Your Wallet! A college student has many woes, and an empty wallet is a common one. Between juggling studying, pledging for that frat, and partying, a college student can burn cash like no other. This is especially true for those staying at a dormitory and living away from home. Students can save money by being smart and buying textbooks online. I know this has personally saved me hundreds of dollars per semester. The following is Part 2 of my guide to getting the best deals on textbooks and getting the most out of your money...2. Shop around. I know this seems like common sense but you'd be surprised how many people overlook this simple money saving method. A smart shopper will compare different prices from, at the very least, three different sellers. If you would like to make a comparison between online booksellers, visit BookFinder.com. BookFinder.com is a useful tool if you want to compare prices on many different books from various sellers.

K.O Eckland first came to prominence in the traditional jazz scene subsituting for the Firehouse Five Plus Two's pianist, Frank Thomas. When Thomas left the band, Eckland replaced him and contrinued to play with the group until they disbanded in 1972. Later, Eckland founded and led the The World Famous Desolation Jazz Ensemble & Mess Kit Repair Battalion Jazz Band. He also took an active interest in the Pismo Jazz Festival. I recall that had the pleasure to hear K.O. play with the Desolation Jazz Ensemble and Mess Kit Repair Battalion in the mid-1990s at one of the Pismo festivals. The band brought the same joy and sense of fun to the stage that the Firehouse Five reputedly did. In addition to his muscial gifts, Eckland was also a published author. A sample of his writing can be found on BookFinder.com.

Just in time for Mother's Day, the ungrateful brats at BookFinder.com have compiled a list of the worst literary moms ever. Jocasta, the mother of Oedipus, may have been 'too stupid to not sleep with someone who is half her age when the gods have proclaimed she will commit incest,' but apparently she's got nothing on Corinne Dollanganger from 'Flowers in the Attic,' who had similar, um, issues. The list is limited to fiction, but plenty of mothers from recent memoirs could give BookFinder.com's women a run for their money. In this Sunday's Book Review, Lori Gottlieb has a funny piece about the perils of writing less than flattering about dear old mom. What about you, readers? How honest would you dare to be?

In honor of mom (ahem): BookFinder.com today tells us who they figure are the worst moms ever in literature. If there is one person who personifies selflessness, un-wavering love and caring the first to come to mind should be your mother. She cradled you for your fist nine months and held your hand though all the challenges life could throw at you. Yes, yes, yes. We've got it: hearts and flowers. That's what Mother's Day is all about. But that's not quite what we're dealing with here. As BookFinder.com tells us, 'not all the mothers in literature come out smelling like roses. Abandonment, abuse, and adultery are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bottom of the barrel of fictional mothers.' All true, in fact, literature is stuffed full of really awful moms. Here is BookFinder.com's very good list. Can you think of any more?

Still, this is Mother's Day weekend and so Mum's the word. But Bad Mums is what interests me. And the Victorian angel in the household having given way to the Freudian complexities of modernity, it means that I'm hardly alone here. So I was pleased to get an email from BookFinder.com, listing, in descending order, the Top 10 Worst Mothers in Literature...As you can see, it's an interesting and considered cast of the negligent, the fanatical, the narcissistic, the stupid, the neurotic and the pure psychotic. And with one exception, it doesn't even include stepmothers, who could easily make for a litany of their own.

Madonna's first book, entitled 'Sex' has become one of the most sought after on the web according to BookFinder.com, a website dedicated to providing information and sale of more than 150 million books around the world, which places this title in the 10 most wanted books. This phenomenon is not unique in the U.S. but also in the United Kingdom. 'Sex' is a photographic scandal that last year broke sales records becoming the most expensive book auctioned after reaching a price of around $6,000 on the 15th Anniversary since its publication in October of 1992. Now placed at number 2 on the BookFinder.com top 10 U.S. list with 'Once a Runner' by John L. Parker Jr., heading the list, and number 3 on the the Top 10 United Kingdom list.

Happy Mother's Day, fellow lovers of literature! Our friends at BookFinder.com, the Berkeley-based Web site that trawls the cyber-universe for you in search of that elusive title you've been dying to get your hands on, have a quirky sense of humor about how to celebrate all things mom. They've pulled together a list of the Top 10 Worst Mothers in the history of literature, going all the way back to Sophocles' time to pillory the lady who gave us the original Oedipus complex, Jocasta, wife of Creon and of, uh -- her own none-too- bright boy, Oedipus.

Our friends at BookFinder.com, the Berkeley-based Web site that trawls the cyber-universe for you in search of that elusive title you've been dying to get your hands on, have a quirky sense of humor about how to celebrate all things mom. They've pulled together a list of the Top 10 Worst Mothers in the history of literature, going all the way back to Sophocles' time to pillory the lady who gave us the original Oedipus complex, Jocasta, wife of Creon and of, uh -- her own none-too-bright boy, Oedipus. And while I might quibble a bit with their selections -- they left off that veritable black hole of self- absorption, Astrid's mother Ingrid in Janet Fitch's 'White Oleander' -- it is kind of fun to ponder their reasons and see if you agree...to read more, go to InsideBayArea.com. And feel free to fling this list in your own kids' faces and say, 'See -- I'm not so bad!'

BookFinder.com has compiled a list of the Top 10 Worst Mothers in Literature...And I have to ask -- how is Oedipus' mom only No. 7? Their list: 10. Jeanettes Mother from 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' by Jeanette Winterson; 9. Sarah from 'Little Children' by Tom Perrotta; 8. Gertrude from 'Hamlet' by Shakespeare; 7. Jocasta from 'Oedipus the King' by Sophocles; 6. Sophie Portnoy from 'Portnoy`s Complaint' by Philip Roth ; 5. The mother/stepmother in 'Hansel and Gretel' by Brothers Grimm; 4. Norma Bates from 'Psycho' by Robert Bloch; 3. Margaret White from 'Carrie' by Stephen King ; 2. Petal from 'The Shipping News' by E. Annie Proulx ; 1. Corinne Dollanganger from 'Flowers' in the Attic by V.C. Andrew.

Niche Searches: Not even Google can find everything that's available online. And if your search is specific, you may not want to wade through the Web at large to locate your topic or media of choice. Fortunately, whatever your area of interest might be, there is most likely a searchable database for it. Here are just a few of the many sites that have carved out a niche in Internet searching: Blogs: Technorati.com; BlogScope.com; Books: BookFinder.com; Amazon.com; BN.com.

Slow and Steady: John L. Parker Jr.'s 'Once a Runner' enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 14 -- more than three decades after it was first published. Unfamiliar with this come-from-behind story? Parker is the self-published author whose tale of a mystical miler named Quenton Cassidy was revived after it topped BookFinder.com's list of the most searched for out-of-print books in the United States for 2007 and 2008. Two years ago in Runner's World, Parker described to Benjamin Cheever the publicity strategy that helped him sell 100,000 copies over the years, which included listing his personal records (he once ran a 4:06 mile) on the jacket and racing in a T- shirt promising a free book to anyone who passed him. ('I didn't give away a lot of books,' he said.)

BookFinder.com carried out some research with the heading `Help save the planet, choose used books. Purchasing used books on BookFinder.com saves 7.1 lbs of CO2 emissions per book'. They claim that: Producing and retailing a new book generates 8.85 lbs of CO2 and Shipping a used book some 2,132 miles by ground uses just 1.7 lbs of CO2. BookFinder.com used the study by the Green Press Initiative, which found that the entire US book industry emits 8.85 pounds of CO2 per book, through all its production steps, retail, and publishing activities. They found that shipping a used book purchased on the Internet, and assuming it was bought and sold within the USA that the average order had to be shipped by 2,132 miles.

Today (22 April) is Earth Day, and e-commerce site BookFinder.com, which can search for more than 150m new, used, rare and out-of-print textbooks, is reminding us that reading is not without an environmental impact. The company compared the carbon footprint of buying a new book with the impact of buying a used book over the internet. Each new book produces 8.85 lbs of carbon, but shipping a book 2,132 miles by surface mail produces just 1.7lbs. More information and details about how the figures were arrived at can be found on the BookFinder.com website: http://www.bookfinder.com/

The runners' bible, 'Once A Runner', was one of the hardest-to-find books in America...Last year the most searched-for item on BookFinder.com -- the Google of rare books -- wasn't some old bestseller or literary classic, but a fairly whimsical piece of writing that is part training manual, part religious tract, part love story, and all about running. It's only had two paperback editions and it's a wonder it was ever printed at all. But for reasons most people will never understand, 'Once A Runner', by John L Parker Jr, became the bible of every college runner in America. It's a cult classic, not in the sense of creating a new cult, but in capturing that strange and often insular cult known as distance running. And after years of absence it's finally back in print, my shining new copy arriving yesterday in magnificent hardback.

I love to read. I will read just about anything and my bigest dream is to have a 100.00 to go and just spend at Barnes and Noble on anything I want. Next to that dream is one just as good, free books. I have found several websites where you can sign up and get free or very low cost books...4. Places to get books cheap or find rare books: Amazon, Powells, Alibris, AbeBooks, BookFinder.com, Half.com. Barnes and Noble has used books of the one you search for as Amazon does too sold by individuals.

As the economic recession continues, Americans look to pinch their pennies. Here are some top Web sites that consumers are using to find deals on items ranging from prescription drugs to home furnishings: BookFinder.com. Whether a user needs text books or a pleasure read, bookfinder.com will show what different vendors charge for the same used or new titles.

Thirty years ago, John L. Parker Jr. offered free copies of his self- published novel, 'Once a Runner', to anyone who could beat him in a footrace. (He didn't have to give away very many.) Before long, Parker had sold the rest of his 100,000 copies to athletes fascinated by the story of Quenton Cassidy, a college-age runner who strives to complete a four-minute mile. Since then, the novel has frequently topped BookFinder.com's list of most sought-after out-of-print books. Now cult fans can rejoice: Scribner is republishing the book on April 7. 'Perseverance pays off,' says Parker, 61. 'That's one thing I learned from distance running. Distance runners don't give up. We hang in there.'

It's always hard to judge whether a book is good or bad unless you've had a chance to read it for a while...Some books mentioned are in print and can be obtained in libraries and bookstores. Others are out of print but may be found in used bookshops or on at Web sites like Alibris, Amazon.com, Bibliofind and BookFinder.com.

After the video was put online in 2007 by a still-unidentified poster, 'A Lion Called Christian,' which was originally published in 1971, shot onto BookFinder.com's list of the top 10 most searched for out-of-print books, behind Madonna's 'Sex' but ahead of 'Woodworker's Essential Shop Aids and Jigs' and 'The Principles of Knitting.' In recent years, this shadow best-seller list has become something of a training ground for the Times list: Catherine Anderson's 1991 historical romance 'Comanche Heart' (No. 7 at BookFinder.com) hopes to follow Anderson's reissued 'Comanche Moon' onto the paperback mass-market list when it's republished in June, while BookFinder.com's gold medalist in the out-of-print Olympics, John L. Parker Jr.'s 1978 cult distance-running novel, 'Once a Runner,' makes its own charge at the Times list next month. Early re-reviews of Parker's novel are mixed. Writing in Slate, Mark Tracy called it both 'like the work of an eighth grader going through his Beat phase' and 'the best novel ever about distance running.

As the economic recession continues, Americans look to pinch their pennies. And while a good pair of scissors and sales flyers can go a long way toward cutting expenses, many people are printing, rather than clipping, their coupons. Here are some top websites that consumers are using to find deals...BookFinder.com. Whether the user needs textbooks or a pleasure read, BookFinder.com will show what different vendors charge for the same used or new titles.

The Internet may be the world's newest communication medium, and books may be among the oldest, but the two have met in lots of interesting ways...One controversial aspect of online book buying is the easy ability of buying used books from used booksellers as well as fellow readers. In addition to the above sites, used books are available through eBay and Half.com as well as book aggregators such as Alibris and BookFinder.com.

Most wanted: BookFinder.com has issued its annual report on the most in-demand out-of-print books. Once again, Madonna's 'Sex' leads off the arts and music section, which is funny all by itself. 'Sex' is followed by Salvador Dali's 'The Jerusalem Bible' and Walt Kelly's 'I Go Pogo.' Most-wanted biographies include Norman Mailer's 'Marilyn' and Joan Crawford's 'My Way of Life,' while the literature category includes volumes ranging from Taylor Caldwell's 'Dear and Glorious Physician' to C.S. Lewis' 'The Allegory of Love'.

Own These Books, Earn Big Money. BookFinder.com has issued its annual report on the most in-demand out-of-print books. Once again, Madonna's 'Sex' leads off the (ahem) Arts and Music section, which is funny all by itself. 'Sex' is followed by Salvador Dali's 'The Jerusalem Bible' and Walt Kelly's 'I Go Pogo'. Biography's most wanted includes Norman Mailer's 'Marilyn' and Joan Crawford's 'My Way of Life', while literature includes everything from Taylor Caldwell's 'Dear and Glorious Physician' to C.S. Lewis' 'The Allegory of Love'.

In 1992, Lessard wrote and self-published a 119-page book, 'The Complete Book of Bananas', that is still one of the best available books on bananas. It's now out of print, but Amazon and BookFinder.com sometimes offer it. The supply always was limited, and today it is very expensive. Lessard says that he intends to update and reprint it.

Birds, especially long-distance migrants, are creatures of extreme habit. They have to be; otherwise, they could never arrive on their wintering or breeding grounds at the right time. Just one ill-timed flight pattern can mean death. It's fun to observe the migratory birds arrive at their appointed times. For years, we have used Arthur Stupka's 'Notes on the Birds of Great Smoky Mountains Park' (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1963) for reliable information on earliest spring arrival and fall departure dates. (This book is now out of print, but used copies are available via BookFinder.com.)

A self-published novel about running that took off in the 1970s is coming back into print this spring. On April 7, Scribner will publish 'Once a Runner' by John L. Parker, Jr., which is now a cult classic, having landed in the number-one spot on BookFinder.com's top-10 list of out-of-print books of 2008 in the U.S. Parker's agent, Byrd Leavell, said 'Once a Runner' is 'Rocky for runners,' and Runner's World called it 'the best novel ever written about running.' There are 100,000 copies of the book in print, and used copies have sold for as much as $300 on Amazon. There's even a fake movie trailer for the book online that generated considerable buzz?until it turned out to be a fake.

For the average cash-strapped college student, watching large amounts of money ring up at the bookstore's register can be very unsettling. The estimated cost for textbooks and related expenses in the 2007-2008 academic year ranged from $805 to $1,229 per student, depending on the university, according to the National Association of College Stores...Scott Laming of BookFinder.com, a discount textbook search engine, said textbook rentals may not be the best fit for everyone. 'If you like to write in your books, don't rent,' he said. 'If you rent and demolish them, you'll end up buying them.' Laming said rentals are best for students who take good care of their textbooks and know they don't want to keep them.

Like most fantasy-adventure stories, 'Inkheart, adapted from German author Cornelia Funke's popular children's books, strives to conjure up a long-forgotten world...Only by finding a copy of the now-lost tome can he restore his family and thwart evil. Which is as well and good, but his movie would be over in 10 minutes if Mo just hit BookFinder.com.

For the average cash-strapped college student, watching large amounts of money ring up at the bookstore's register can be very unsettling. The estimated cost for textbooks and related expenses in the 2007-'08 academic year ranged from $805 to $1,229 per student, depending on the university, according to the National Association of College Stores...Scott Laming of BookFinder.com, a discount textbook search engine, said textbook rentals may not be the best fit for everyone. 'If you like to write in your books, don't rent,' he said. 'If you rent and demolish them, you'll end up buying them.' Laming said rentals are best for students who take good care of their textbooks and know they don't want to keep them.

The family of a Hawke's Bay author whose out-of-print book topped a list of most-searched-for books on an international website are also seeking a copy. When Maree Barham returned to Havelock North from her Christmas break and read in Hawke's Bay Today about a book by her late husband that was highly sought after in Australia, she was blown away. The 'Guide to Fresh Water Angling in Hawke's Bay', by Charles Russell Barham, first published in 1968, was the No 1 title searched for on the Australian section of international website BookFinder.com. In the first year requests to the Australian section were rated, 2008 saw Barham's book prove more popular than true blue Aussie titles such as Souvenirs of the Sunny South, a collection of Australian Horse Verse (1915) by William James Wye, and Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia (1975) by Harold G Cogger. To have the book, which Maree said Barham put his life into, come up again this way 40 years after it was published and 26 years after his tragic death, was unexpected. 'I was just blown away, it's been more than 25 years since he died,' she said. 'When I saw the article in the newspaper I thought, 'what's this?' 'To know that 40 years after it was published people are looking for it now is amazing. He put his heart and soul into that book.'

They call students 'poor college kids' for a reason, so many are turning to online textbook purchasing due to the routinely better deals. With the new semester beginning, online and on-campus bookstores make their case to buying customers. Scott Laming, director of public relations for BookFinder.com, which he describes as 'a Google for books,' said the market of students turning to online book purchasing is becoming larger every year, which leads to lower prices. 'On a whole, it does increase every year,' Laming said. 'Because they are doing that, the prices are becoming more and more competitive.' Laming said that because students can compare everyone's prices within seconds, sellers have to be more conscious of their prices. He advises students to start shopping early the sooner the books are purchased, the better the price and cheaper the shipping and to check all sources to make sure they are receiving the best deals for buying and selling. Also, students can ask professors if older editions are sufficient, because they are usually cheaper.

Thanks to all who wrote in with suggestions about why the elusive book 'Typhoon' had apparently vanished into a black hole rather than reaching me in China, and what I might do about that. Among the things I have learned in the last few hours are: It's on sale at the moment at the Hong Kong Book Centre on Des Voeux Road; It will be available six weeks from now, as a £7.99 paperback, direct from Penguin Books in the UK; It can be found in various overpriced hardcover versions, and not-yet-available paperbacks, via BookFinder.com (and some others).

You know that heart-wrenching YouTube video, the one where two shaggy- haired hippies are reunited with their long-lost pet lion--Apparently, their story was recorded in a 1972 non-fiction book called 'A Lion Called Christian', now the sixth most requested out-of- print book on BookFinder.com.

It's a paradoxical category: The most popular books that publishers have deemed not worthy of publishing -- that is to say, the out-of- print books that are most in demand. Ron Charles, the fiction reviewer for the Washington Post, offers commentary on the top five here, while BookFinder.com presents the complete list. The takeaway: If Madonna wrote a book about knitting or carpentry -- a soft-core book about knitting or carpentry-- we're talking bestseller.

Forget the best new books of 2008! What were last year's top ten most sought-after out-of-print books in the United States? According to BookFinder.com, which tracks rare and o.p. book trends , the number one title was John L. Parker's 1978 cult classic distance running novel, 'Once a Runner'. Second place was held by that perennial erotic favorite, Madonna's 'Sex' (1982), and taking the third spot was Nora Roberts's 'Promise Me Tomorrow' (1984), a novel Roberts describes as mediocre and refuses to reprint. (Librarians, if your collection owns a copy, put it under lock and key as used copies are selling for $80 to $185.) Interestingly three of the titles on the list are returning to print this spring: Once a Runner (April 2009); A Lion Called Christian (April 2009), a 1972 memoir about a pet lion by Anthony "Ace" Bourke and John Randall; the authors' YouTube video about their reunion with Christian was a big hit; and Catherine Anderson's 1991 romance,'Comanche Heart' (June 2009), a follow-up to the reissued, New York Times best-selling 'Comanche Moon'. Probably the most unusual book on the list was Charles Hayward's century-old 'Carpentry for Beginners' (1900); despite the convenience offered by today's power tools, carpentry techniques obviously remain unchanged after 108 years. And two other how-to titles also made the top ten list: Robert Wearing's 'Woodworker's Essential Shop Aids and Jigs' (1992) and June Hemmons Hiatt's 'The Principles of Knitting' (1889).

Interestingly, of the top ten out of print books of 2008, at least three are slated to go back in-print this year: 'Once a Runner: A Novel', "A Lion Called Christian" and 'Comanche Heart'. Now a closer look at these three books: The first was published in 1978. The second version is published in 1972. The third is published in 1991. All are already 10 to 30 years old. In addition, BookFinder.com says that 99% of the worlds books are already out of print (maybe the correct term should be 99.999%)!

Finding deals at the store is one way to save on grocery bills. Learning how to cook on a budget is another. Thankfully, plenty of discount books are out there to help: 'How to Cook Everything: Simple recipes for Great Food': ($7, Mark Bittman), 'The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook': ($19), 'Microwave Gourmet': ($3.50, Barbara Kafka), 'The Starving Students' Cookbook': ($3.50, Dede Hall). All prices are based on deals available from search-engine BookFinder.com.

The BookFinder.com team spends a lot of time looking at used and rare market demand trends. Per our research, the following are the top 10 most sought-after out-of-print books in America in 2008...We're excited to see that three of these long tail 'bestsellers' will be coming back into print next year. We love out-of-print books, but I look forward to a world where no book ever has to go out of print again, thanks to the magic of print-on-demand and ebooks.